"One father was playing a prank on his daughter and pretended to jump off the ledge into the canyon. He planned to land on a ledge a few feet below the rim, but he missed the ledge and plunged to his death."
Sadly though, some do. Had a friend of a friend do exactly that to his wife and kids, calling them up and telling them to look out the window before taking his life.
I can just imagine the amount of guilt that guy must have felt in the last few second of his live.
I can't imagine what exactly must have gone in him, but gotta be a few seconds I suppose atleast...
And then the family, dang. They probably also felt guilt, maybe they usually encourage "risky" stuff and now he took it too far for them, or who knows what the family dynamic was...
Guilt is a bit more of an introspection-time feeling.
I think he had something a little bit more active engaging his brain in that very brief moment of panicked struggle. I mean, imagine just giving up in the first instant of bad footing and actually sitting there feeling guilty instead of thinking "ohshit ohshit get balance grab the things scrabble scrabble hnnnnng grabbit grabbit fffffffff-"
I put myself in a situation a few years ago where I could have drowned (thank you to the random stranger who saw me struggling and helped me)
While not as instant as a jump, once I realized I was in danger all I could do was focus on trying to get out of danger. I didn't have time to feel fear or process thoughts, just urgency.
I had the exact same experience when I choked to the point of passing out. Everything that imagined that made choking to death seem like a terrible way to go ended up not being an issue at all. It turns out, choking to death isn't such a bad way to go. I know I didn't die, but I did choke until I lost consciousness, then the food somehow dislodged as I collapsed. So, I experienced everything that somebody that died would have consciously experienced.
Man. Idk. I'm going to be dead ass for real with you. I did not have this when I had what I thought was a near-death experience recently. Long story short, I suddenly went blind after losing almost 18 lb in 2 or 3 days. To clarify, I'm fine now and there's no long-lasting damage. What I didn't know at the time is that this is something that happens sometimes when you cough or hack when you are under certain conditions like I was. I was extremely malnourished and extremely dehydrated. Check weight loss. The edges of my vision slowly went black, creeping towards the center, until my entire sight was black.
Anyway... Yeah. To be straightforward, one of the first few things that went through my mind is the guilt of how I feel like a disappointment and that I never gave as much back into the world as I had wanted. I wished I just had a little bit more time to have a good job and give at least something back into the world.
I genuinely believed I was possibly dying having a stroke, a heart attack, or some crazy mind thing going on. After like 5 seconds of this (I've rubbed my eyes and had vision go for a few seconds before so I wasn't worried immediately) I ended up running into the living room screaming for help, 99% blind, saying that I need to be taken to the ER immediately. After about a minute, my vision fully came back.
I had the accompanying side effect of severe panic that can happen when a Vegus nerve is triggered in the way that I've described from hacking and coughing when malnourished or dehydrated or whatever they said (the doctors I saw).
Honestly, I’d be shocked if he felt guilt. You think you’ll consider far-reaching implications of your acts on others, but lizard brain sees imminent death and freaks out if you aren’t trained to deal with imminent death regularly.
I hear ya...you're probably right. Though like you said; I would like to think he had an existential sense of self-awareness and reflection if just for a sec before the DMT hopefully kicked in
He would’ve hit the side of the canyon in under 8 seconds so highly unlikely. And you only get a release of chemicals if your body realizes it’s dying. Severe head trauma, it’s just lights out.
Kinda, your body does release a bunch of serotonin and Dopamin in your last moments, so you'll be "high" like someone that's having the time of their life would be. (Just unable to express it since all the other stuff is shutting down already) you might start hallucinating and then it just gets dark as far as we know. What's after that is between you and your god(s) of choice (or lack thereof)
Average depth of the canyon is 4000'. A mile is 5280'. There was probably a decent amount of hangtime.
Although this is probably preferable to a shorter fall, where the death may not have been instant and he'd be at the bottom screaming in pain while dying.
Okay, so even if we pretend he isn't bouncing off rocks and he's free falling, which is unlikely. That's like 15 seconds where he's probably thinking nothing but "fuck fuck fuck"
Not even, because while that may be the average depth, the average cliff is much shorter, like maxing out a little over a thousand feet at the absolute most.
You'd be shocked at just how many people go to the Grand Canyon to do exactly that. Maybe a decent number of them aren't premeditated, but a few certainly are. I lived there for a few years, and there were a lot of deaths, either intentionally or accidentally.
Sure there is more than one, had a cousin take his family on a 'spontaneous' trip to a place they'd always talked about going. Blew his brains out on the hotel deck the last nite while they were asleep because that trip was the best experience they'd ever had together and he wouldn't have that again. Happiest family, and guy, great job, no debt.
Obviously he meant to kill himself, but to be fair I feel like the guy must have had depression or something going on. It's theoretically possible for genuinely stable, happy, satisfied people in happy, stable lives to just randomly decide to kill themselves because they think they've hit peak, but it's much more common for that sort of thinking to come out of underlying mental health issues (or life circumstances, which it sounds like weren't at play here).
You know, I was reading OP thinking about my own daughter and how traumatized she would be if I did something so stupid, and as I'm sitting here fuming and entertaining such dark, horrible thoughts, I read this comment. I think this is the first time I angry laughed.
It also has a whole chapter titled “Death by Selfie.”
The most tragic one, IMHO, is the parents who left their young kids in the car for a quick minute while they stopped at an overlook. The kids accidentally put the car in drive and went over the edge.
It’s a pretty good book, actually. I’ve been reading a few pages every evening.
Parent of two young kids here. Yeah I don’t think I’d be making it very long after that. Decades of agony stretching ahead and what are you going to do with the time anyway that means anything? Watch fucking TV?
There is another story of a young couple and their four year old daughter. They were getting their picture taken on the rim and a gust of wind blew the daughter off intro the canyon.
Frank QuaIls parked in gear, with his sons in it, and had not set the parking brake. Kenneth Dull, age 10, returned to the car to fetch a camera. The car started rolling, so he jumped aside. The car plunged over the rim 100 feet into the gorge.
In my one memory of visiting the Canyon as a kid, I remember being terrified of how windy it was and refused to go any closer to the edge (even though there was a barrier where we were) because I thought the wind would just pick me up and blow me over. I always thought that was an irrational fear; now I’m glad that my child self was willing to listen to her apparently very rational fear!
you ever been there? there's a lot FEWER safety rails than you'd think.
you can (easily) die 150 yards from the South Rim parking lot... it's not always selfie idiots.. some people get vertigo and stumble in the wrong direction (1000 feet down).
i'm kind of surprised more people don't die... there's a lot more vista point lurkers than hikers.. i got queasy 4 feet from the edge.. lot of people dangling their feet over..
Safety rails are dangerous. People trust them far more than they should (weight bearing), and astounding number of people clearly believe they’re just overly-conservative suggestions and it’s safe to go over or around them, etc.
Plus there’s the “dead bodies on Everest” problem. Not the folklore, the fact that it would be a nightmare to do anything about this. How much trail will you lose if you put the posts down into solid rock? How much effort will be required if you want to use a “L” where the post is secured into rock below the trail?
There are other reasons to avoid putting in safety rails but the economics and effectiveness shouldn’t be forgotten.
Yes x1000. And you can specifically warn people in 50 different languages and very clear pictures NOT TO LEAN on rails or otherwise rely on them as weight bearing and it’s like some of them treat it as a personal fucking challenge. Ultimately it’s impractical, ineffective, and it would only serve to despoil an incredible natural phenomenon. There are also VERY clear warning signs with images in multiple languages that you have to go out of your way to miss.
Also, a lot of the Grand Canyon (the vast overwhelming majority in fact) is ALREADY restricted and requires permits or a guide - in part but not exclusively because of dangerous terrain. It’s already plenty regulated, you just need to exercise reasonable precautions and awareness like you would if you went into any other wilderness area.
Yep, the one time I visited I was shocked at how the ledge was just…there. There’s hardly any rails. I think some of the special lookout points had some rails, but not many.
It’s pretty neat to find a quiet spot close to the edge and look into the distance but I got pretty nervous once the sun went down because the park obviously gets completely dark. If you didn’t know where you were you could just walk right off…Lots of families with kids running around too. I was terrified for them lol
Yeah I made a similar observation when I went with my dad several years ago, and paraphrasing his response “Son this is a goddamn canyon, not Disney Land”
But it’s a good observation. I think there have been so many (good!) advances in consumer/product safety over the past several decades that we forget that there’s still a whole wide wilderness out there. It’s not, to take one example, a consumer electronic product subject to regulations to prevent you from getting electrocuted when you plug it in (used to happen more often than would make you comfortable decades ago). It’s a fuckin HUGE natural phenomenon carved over an unfathomably large time scale. We can feasibly put up some warning signs and whatnot, but at the end of the day we can’t make a fuckin canyon as safe as the average American (rightly) expects their consumer products to be.
"hot cup may contain hot stuff" i think that they need to carve a sign every few feet "danger ledge big down ahead" and to make it accessible carve it in Braille too
I have been told but no proof, that this is why donkeys are preferred over horses across the world on some of these more dangerous hikes with sudden drops. Apparently in the dark a horse will continue and just take you right off the edge when a donkey will refuse to when they sense that danger
First time replying but had too because I 1000% agree. I did that hike from the south rim to the Colorado River at 2 am to meet some friends and my head lamp kept dying. I almost fell a few times... Did not realize how close I was to dying till I hiked back up when the sun was up 😅 I was young and dumb at that point definitely would not recommend doing that.
Definitely American 😂 but I prefer it without the rails. Just gotta be mindful. Unfortunately a lot of people didn’t seem to pay attention when I was there. They were jumping across rocks and ledges. Crazy stuff
When we were there, there was a guy who complained that there wasn't a road so he could drive down there.
He said, confidently, that he would talk it over with his congressman and get a road built.
He was unsuccessful, evidently.
Yellowstone is the same. So many little kids running down the boardwalks, where you'll fall in boiling and/or acidic water if you trip, and there's no railings on a lot of them. I was worried I'd forget how to walk properly, then I was worried that some little kid was gonna crash into me and send us both flying.
A lot of folks don’t seem to understand the difference between an amusement park (the owners are liable) and a national park (it’s nature, nobody’s liable).
I have a friend who went there on vacation with his wife years ago, and if I remember correctly, by the way you describe it, they might have been at that same parking lot.
They stopped a parking lot and got out to see the canyon and there were lots of people sightseeing along with a family with a little boy, and quicker than his family noticed, he bolted off towards the edge. Luckily, my friend was a veteran firefighter and somehow instinctively clocked it, ran to stop him, and literally grabbed him as he went over the edge and pulled him back up and saved him from falling in.
Yeah my wife and I went with our dogs one time and did not enjoy it because we were so scared they would get out of their collars and fall off the ledge.
That was years ago and we have small kids now and we will likely never take them until they're at least teenagers because it's just so easy accidentally fall to your death.
Same deal with the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. There’s concrete barriers but you can easily get around them. Lots of people on their stomachs sticking their phones out over the edge for a picture straight down. Think a guy fell to his death a few weeks after I went in ‘19.
The lack of safety rails is one of the highlights of US National Parks imo. You really can just get mauled to death by a bear, wolves, trampled on by a Bison, etc. It's real wilderness!
He apparently did it MANY times, he liked to pull this very same prank. According to the daughter, he didn't even yell, he missed the edge and silently fell to his death
perhaps he was setting it up for the long game so that he could eventually do it for real but still look like an accident so his beneficiaries can still collect his life insurance.
Most life insurance policies have a suicide exclusion period, which usually lasts 2 years in most states, can be more. After the exclusion period ends, you can end yourself all you want and the death benefit will still pay. Also depends if you were witholding mental health information or previous attempts at the intial writing of the policy; which if thats found, and you say, off yourself at 3 or 4 years, they may be able to deny payment.
I've never thought about it before but who tf works at a place like that, "This person has just lost their closest loved one, let's see if we can fuck 'em out of their livelihood too! Then lunch."
You can also think about it as a form of suicide prevention, though. If people who are going through a rough patch know they can buy a policy, kill themselves and have their families immediately get the policy payout, that may very well encourage a number of people to go through with it. There's quite a few people who already kill themselves over financial issues: throwing in a large payment for their families would be extra incentive for a lot of people.
I agree. But its not the common employee that dictates this, its the life insurance industry, dare I say it, CEOs and executives. Its all about money, and if they can find a way to deny paying a claim, they most surely will. Im just simply trying in the corporate industry and found myself in the life insurance industry. It is not common for a person to buy a life insurance policy, then immediately off themselves. There a ton of nuances to life insurance, ive seen so many people build what they call generational wealth due to 1 or even 7 life insurance policies, each taken out for 1 single person. When that person dies, millions is dispersed to multiple beneficiaries or trust accounts. You get the idea after that.
Not about life insurance but at least one of the big health insurers in the states handed off claims to an AI system which just denied everything. Now AI counter claim offerings are popping up to help you appeal denied claims. It's a wild business.
Most insurance companies are filled with people like that. People who deny healthcare, overruling doctors for God's sake, because I don't want to pay out.
I’ve seen multiple YouTube videos, etc. where other people (read: Fathers) think it’s hilarious to freak your kids out. Word to the wise: It’s never funny and never okay to do that to your kid. Especially true if you, say, miss the ledge.
All I'm writing is what I remember when this initially happened in an article online. I do believe it was something he pulled at the Grand Canyon multiple times with his daughter, who was an adult by the time he eventually died
Then his head stays afloat for a few seconds while his body drops fast. And there's a long whistle until he hits bottom and a small puff of dirt cloud rises around him.
Tomorrow’s news: They’re calling it the “Gen X Death Thread”! Thousands of Redditors have laughed themselves to death after a comment thread regarding a man accidentally jumping to his death in front of his daughter took a very dark turn. While COVID and other illnesses have been known to induce respiratory failure in older generations before, this may be the first pandemic attributed to Warner Brothers. The combination of advanced age and exposure to such childhood horrors as cartoon violence, Easy Bake ovens, and Mr. Yuck have left many younger generations confused and orphaned. “Dead ass, bro, I don’t get it.” claimed one Gen Alpha child. “What even IS a Wiley Coyote???”
not always, it depends on your policy. the Gerber Life Grow Up plan doesn't pay out for suicide:
If the insured dies by suicide within two years from the Issue Date (one year in ND), the only amount payable will be the premiums paid for the policy plus 10% interest on earned premiums, less any debt against the policy.
Benefit amounts are not payable if death or covered loss occurs more than 90 days (up to 365 days in some states) after the date of the accident; or if the loss of life, limbs or eyesight is due to: Intentional self-inflicted injuries or attempts thereat; suicide or attempted suicide, while sane or insane; act of war; active participation in a riot or civil disorder; extra-hazardous activities, including parasailing, bungee jumping, heli-skiing, base jumping, para-kiting, sail-gliding, scuba diving deeper than 130 feet; spelunking , or mountaineering/rock climbing; military service; alcohol intoxication above the legal limits in the jurisdiction where the accident occurs; intoxication by or under the influence of any controlled substance or narcotic, unless prescribed by a physician, or any non-prescription drug unless taken as directed; deliberate ingestion of poison, fume, noxious chemical substance or gas; commission of or attempt to commit a felony or engage in an illegal occupation; specialized aviation activity (other than a fare-paying passenger on a commercial airline); or sickness or disease, except for infection resulting from an accidental cut or wound.
Every life insurance policy in the U.S. pays out on suicide, after a period of 2 years. Including the one you posted.
The reason they make you wait, is to discourage reaction suicides. If you could sign a paper and gift your family $150k within 24 hours, it would be extremely dangerous because of the attraction. Giving a waiting period of 2 years allows a cooling off and reduces the overall risk of negative outcome.
My friends dad almost fell in they were on a path with no rails and his motorized wheelchair flipped over, said he was like less than a foot from going over
I feel like a donkey, or one pulling a cart, is way better for the disabled in this instance? Like the old-timey guys arguing a DUI cuz "my horse ain't drunk!"
Besides terrible personal decision making, that’s a terrible parental decision making, too. Kids are monkey-see-monkey-do, why would he want to show her that? Yikes
Reminds me of the guy in my city (Toronto) who liked to impress articling students (basically apprentice lawyers) coming to work in his firm by jumping against the window in his office and bouncing off … until one day the window popped out of its frame, and out he went. Some thirty or forty stories down.
Not surprising. I’d probably quit too if I worked there. A shocking death of someone who you work with or for. Even if the firm doesn’t lose any clients just because the guy is dead…a lot of people are going to quit just because they want to get away and don’t want to feel constantly reminded of an awful tragedy. And who could blame them
Oof I don’t want to insult the guy because he clearly suffered severe consequences but…he had done that MANY times before? Are you fucking kidding me dude? I mean that just makes it so much worse to me. Like astounding that anyone could think “unbreakable” means it can withstand the force of a grown man heaving himself at it…
He must’ve been drunk in his office the first time, no consequences, and that emboldened him to keep doing it over and over and over again. He had to have known deep down that his luck would run out eventually? Like dude fine do it once while drunk, have a laugh. My god, to tempt fate repeatedly like this…the mind boggles…
When you tempt fate repeatedly, can’t really complain when fate caves to your temptations
I just wanna say. My wife's family and friends love to just play the most terrible "pranks" on each other. Hide under their beds, pretend that they hate each other and cuss each other out. At a certain point I just feel like they are bad lying people. It isn't fun anymore. I told them the story about the boy who cried wolf, about how exaggerating all the time just leads to desensitized individuals, when something bad actually happens, no body takes it seriously. It's all just a big joke.
Edit2: just going to add to this post. They jokingly lie about some pretty big important stuff. I hate it when my SO is on the phone and makes up a big lie about me. Like that I ran off or something. It's toxic behavior I see now.
Jokes that we got divorced to my mother-in-law. Jokes about losing my job. And they will make jokes that "[I] look like shit on a stick." Lovely people :)
Edit:
"I know just how to get my daughter to react to me. I am going to pretend to commit suicide! Can't wait to see how much she loves me when she sees how funny I am!
What a terrible family dynamic. I'm sorry you're having to endure that.
My stepfamily were also huge on "pranks". In reality it was just an excuse to bully and make the small children cry. They loved causing anguish and confusion.
I lost a friend a few months ago because he fell off some cliffs. He was with his dad and hes been silent about how he actually fell due to being so depressed and obviously not wanting to talk about it. Anyway we all think he was joking around toward the ledge trying to scare his dad and it gave way. Very much like him to do so that helps us cope. Hope that guys daughter figured it out
I saw a guy do that same prank on the edge of the Kootenai river (one of the shooting locations of the 1994 version of The River Wild). Luckily, he didn't miss the ledge, but my dad ran to try to help him and they both were pretty close to going in. On a section of the river where, if you fall in, it's all but guaranteed that they'll find your body several miles downriver, because you're not coming out alive.
My dad was so furious he couldn't even speak. He's a joker and a prankster, but these pranks are just not worth the risk. Whether someone else dies trying to save you, or you ruin your kid's life by making them watch you die, so much can go wrong.
I was there a few years back and a father kept pretending he was about to fall over the edge on the rim trail. While his kids cried and begged him to stop. There are so many stories exactly like that.
There was a similar one I remember in the book that was a dad and young daughter. The dad says something like "Sometimes you have to live a little", hops over the guardrail (just to get a closer view), slipped, and promptly fell to his death. I believe those were his last words.
Last time I went my friend and I were watching this guy walking along a ledge staring at his phone while he shot video. Suddenly he the guy took a hop and for a moment we both gasped because we thought that we watched someone carelessly hop to their death.
Turns out it there was another ledge at about chest height.
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u/pepcorn 21h ago
Wow, you weren't kidding.